{"id":854,"date":"2011-05-26T17:51:53","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T01:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=854"},"modified":"2011-05-26T17:51:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T01:51:53","slug":"views-off-the-bike-from-the-away-from-home-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Views Off The Bike From The “Away From Home Office”"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I have wrapped up my work project in Everett Washington.\u00a0 It took a bit longer than expected and I’m glad to be back home.\u00a0\u00a0 I did get in\u00a0some tasty miles of singletrack during my stay but\u00a0between the work, weather and\u00a0a nasty bit of crud I\u00a0had for a while, \u00a0I did not get my dirt fix as often as I would have liked.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So why do we ride our bikes?\u00a0\u00a0 Geez there will be just about as many answers to that question as there are folks who decide to through a leg over a bike in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that is part of what mountainbiking so special in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One pursuit with countless permutations of living life and generally having a good time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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One of those “answers” for me is seeing beautiful scenery and the occasional critter or two.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was extremely fortunate to score a pretty awesome place to stay during my visit.\u00a0 It was a quint little beach house on Possession Sound that simply was fantastic from an experience standpoint.\u00a0\u00a0 It made coming home from the “office” everyday seem like a mini-vacation.\u00a0\u00a0 When the weather was cooperating there was some incredible views to be had right from the dinner table and deck.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the end of the first week I had adopted a routine getting up a couple hours earlier than I really need to just to enjoy the views and a\u00a0few relaxing cups of coffee before starting my day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the evening the place just begged you to crack open a bottle of one of\u00a0the Pacific Northwest’s\u00a0tasty microbrews.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The views were often a\u00a0daily\u00a0dose of “answers”\u00a0\u00a0if you will.<\/p>\n

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Whales…..Yes I said whales.\u00a0\u00a0 Whales were a common sight right out the front windows.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A few gray whales liked to come into the shallows and feed on whatever tasty critters where on the bottom here.\u00a0\u00a0 They would swim sideways and use their tails to stir up the bottom and then spin around and scoop up and filter out all of the tasty snacks.<\/p>\n

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They would work down the shoreline and eventually head back out to deeper water and\u00a0off to the wherever the\u00a0next buffet spot was located.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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They made plenty of noise with all of their activity and sometimes the sounds be the first thing that would\u00a0draw my attention their “visit”.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Seeing these majestic critters was certainly a life enriching experience.<\/p>\n

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The tidal shift is pretty dramatic in this area.\u00a0 The lines of\u00a0 “puddles” you see in the photo above are the divots created by the whales when they are feeding at high tide.\u00a0 They are typically 6-8 feet long each.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It was quite a\u00a0trip to walk out onto the beach at low tide and meander around where the whales were at less than\u00a024 hours ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Even when there were no critters close by, the views were often\u00a0of the quality that many us pedal for miles to seek out.<\/p>\n

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I kept my camera nearby all the time as you never knew what was going to pop up on the beach at any moment.\u00a0 This pair of otters were in hurry to get their take-out order home before it got warm.<\/p>\n

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So while I did not get in as many miles as I would have liked on this trip, I got of wealth\u00a0of “answers” that I typically only find along\u00a0quite\u00a0singletrack of the backcountry.<\/p>\n

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